ATA urging Texas to reduce ‘excessive’ speed limit on state highway

September 11, 2012

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The American Trucking Associations is urging the Texas Transportation Commission to reverse its decision to allow vehicles to travel 85 miles per hour on a privately-managed stretch of State Highway 130 linking Austin and San...

September 11, 2012
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Truck News

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ARLINGTON, Va. — The American Trucking Associations is urging the Texas Transportation Commission to reverse its decision to allow vehicles to travel 85 miles per hour on a privately-managed stretch of State Highway 130 linking Austin and San Antonio – and has cautioned other states against following the Lone Star State’s example.

“At the end of the day, excessive speed is the greatest threat to highway safety,” said ATA president and CEO Bill Graves. “And by giving motorists carte blanche to put the pedal to the metal, Texas is raising the risk of more crashes, as well as more severe crashes.”

ATA has been a vocal advocate, not just for the use of technology to regulate maximum truck speeds at 65 mph, but for states to promote greater highway safety by adopting maximum speed limits of 65 mph for all vehicles.

“Higher speeds dramatically increase the risks of a catastrophic crash. On today’s busy and congested highways, it is simply unfathomable that a state would allow drivers to put themselves and others at risk by increasing speed limits to such excessive heights,” Graves said. “The state’s obvious attempt to generate more traffic and greater profit from tolls for private investors, at the public’s expense, highlights the trade-offs associated with relying too much on the private sector to finance highways. I would hope that Texas will quickly see the error in its policy and reverse course.”

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Considering it is the United States of Litigation, I would think after about the second flaming wreck, the highway owner and the state will get sued so hard their 10 gallon stetson will fly right off their head.

No trucking company will allow their drivers to travel at or near 85 mph even if the truck was capable of that. What kind of steering tire, even in 24.5, can handle that kind of heat?
And to think that we’re going to send them oil/bitumen by pipeline so that they can blow it out the stack at 135kph.